India Inc M&A deals touch $1.7 bn in April

SummaryOn a month on month basis deal value in Apr'10 was substantially lower than that in Mar'10.

Corporate India's merger and acquisition deal activity stood at USD 1.74 billion in April taking the total M&A kitty so far this year to USD 21 billion.

According to the monthly deal report of VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle.com, the M&A deal value during April stood at USD 1.74 billion rose 57 per cent over the same period last year.

The deal count also witnessed an upward trend and increased to 49 in April compared to 28 in the year-ago period.

"On a month on month basis deal value in Apr'10 was substantially lower than that in Mar'10. In terms of deal value, the monthly activity began with slow momentum in February, accelerated in March to reach USD 14.1 billion.

However, this pace could not be maintained and activity recorded a dip at USD 1.74 billion in April," the report said.

The month of April saw as many as 25 domestic deals worth USD 815 million, compared to 13 deals worth USD 603 million in the year-ago period, the report said.

Besides, the number of outbound deals more than doubled from eight in April 2009 to 18 this year, the number of inbound deals although remained almost unchanged with five deals in April this year as against seven deals witnessed last year during the same time.

Larger deals (USD 50 million and above) continued their dominance and accounted for 87 per cent of total capital invested in April 2010.

DLF- DLF Assets deal, where the country's one of the largest listed real estate firm DLF hiked its stake in a group company, DLF Assets, to 91.9 per cent for USD 694 million, was the largest transaction for the month.

Apart from the DLF deal, some of the other major M&A transactions in April include Jindal Steel & Power USD 500 million buyout of Abu Dhabi-based Shadeed Iron & Steel Co and Godrej Consumer Products' acquisition of Indonesia based PT Megasari Mamsur for USD 269 million.